Edwin Balmer's 1923 novel Keeban is a mystery-adventure-romance, billed as “a novel of the Underworld and the Upper”—meaning, of course, that it has High Society clashing with the criminal classes. It’s a good read and has been unjustly neglected. Science fiction readers (who only know him for his two classic novels) are not likely to track it down. Mystery readers favor his 12-story series about Luther Trant, an early scientific detective armed with psychoanalysis to help track down crooks. (The Trant series was co-written with William B. MacHarg, Balmer’s brother-in-law, also a prolific pulp author.) So here’s your chance to explore some unknown territory...the dark side of 1920s Chicago!

Black Cat Weekly #6 features an eclectic mix of original, classic, and rare stories and novels—science fiction, mysteries, fantasy (light and dark), and the uncategorizable. The latest issue is no exception. Here are 2 novels and 10 shorter works: MR. BIG NOSE, by Martin Suto [mystery short]THE PASSING OF BIG MAMA MAYHALL, by Bobbi A. Chukran [mystery short]ONE HOUR, by Dashiell Hammett [mystery short]IT’S A DATE, by Hal Charles [mystery short]KEEBAN, by Edwin Balmer [mystery novel]WISHFUL THINKING, by Barb Goffman [suspense/fantasy short]MYSTERY OF THE SILVER SKULL, by Frank Lovell Nelson  [mystery short]JEMIMA, by A. R. Morlan [science fiction short]MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE, by E. Nesbit [fantasy short]SYMPATHY FOR ZOMBIES, by John Gregory Betancourt [science fiction short]HOLY CITY OF MARS, by Ralph Milne Farley [science fiction short]PLANET OF DREAD, by Dwight V. Swain [science novel]